1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an air bag system, and more particularly, the present invention relates to a portable air bag system which is constructed in such a way as to be carried and moved, which cooperates, upon a head-on, rear-end or side collision, with a fixed air bag system already mounted to a motor vehicle, to protect occupants, and which has a toy-like configuration to suit children""s tastes.
2. Description of the Related Art
Generally, an air bag system is mounted to a motor vehicle to protect, for example, upon head-on collision, a driver and/or an occupant seating on a front seat from being bumped against an instrument panel or a front windshield glass.
The conventional air bag system comprises an impact sensing unit for sensing a vehicle impact and an air bag module for inflating or deploying an air bag when an impact is sensed. The impact sensing unit includes a sensor device, a battery, a diagnosis device, etc., and the air bag module includes the air bag, an inflator, a gas generator, etc.
In the air bag system, upon occurrence of a head-on, rear-end or side collision, an electrical signal which is generated by the sensor device is transmitted to the inflator. With this, the inflator is ignited or fired to inflate or deploy the air bag. Immediately after the air bag is inflated or deployed, an inflated gas is discharged out of the air bag not to cause injury to the face and the upper body part of an occupant.
Air bags are largely divided into a driver air bag, a passenger air bag and a side air bag. The driver air bag is placed, under a folded status, in a steering handle adjacent to an inflator which is arranged in the steering handle or a steering column. The passenger air bag is placed in the instrument panel, and the side air bag is placed in a seat or a door of the motor vehicle.
However, the conventional air bag system as described above suffers from defects in that, since the air bag is fixedly placed, at least one air bag should be provided for each seat, whereby a cost cannot but be increased by the necessity of installing a number of air bags. In this regard, because the air bag cannot be moved to another place, it is impossible to protect an occupant seating on another seat for which the air bag is not provided.
Also, in the conventional air bag system which is wirelessly and remotely actuated, in the course of sensing a vehicle impact and transmitting an impact sensing signal, radio disturbance can be caused, and the air bag is likely to be mis-actuated by a radio signal outputted from another motor vehicle.
Accordingly, the present invention has been made in an effort to solve the problems occurring in the related art, and an object of the present invention is to provide a portable air bag system which is constructed in such a way as to be carried and moved, which is actuated, upon a head-on, rear-end or side collision, simultaneously with or independently from a fixed air bag system already mounted to a motor vehicle, to protect occupants, and which has a toy-like configuration to suit children""s tastes.
In order to achieve the above object, according to the present invention, there is provided a portable air bag system comprising: impact sensing means operated independently from or in cooperation with at least one fixed air hag mechanism mounted to a motor vehicle for sensing a vehicle collision; a portable air bag mechanism capable of being carried and moved by a vehicle occupant, the portable air bag mechanism having arranged therein an air bag which is inflated and deployed upon occurrence of the vehicle collision; and control means for applying an actuating signal to the portable air bag mechanism when the vehicle collision is sensed by the impact sensing means, and thereby allowing the air bag arranged in the portable air bag mechanism to be inflated and deployed. While the portable air bag mechanism can be manufactured to have various configurations, it is preferred in consideration of safety of a child that the portable air bag mechanism is manufactured to have a configuration of a plaything which can be carried by the child.